Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 8.30.17

* An ongoing crisis: “The devastating storm once known as Hurricane Harvey, already the biggest rainstorm in the history of the continental United States, made landfall again Wednesday morning, delivering another punishing wave of rain to Texas and Louisiana.”

* What a fiasco: “A federal judge on Wednesday tore into President Trump’s voter commission for reneging on a promise to fully disclose public documents before a July 19 meeting, ordering the government to meet new transparency requirements and eliciting an apology from administration lawyers.”

* Quite a recovery: “John McCain will return to Washington next week, giving the Senate GOP its full contingent of 52 votes during what’s sure to be a turbulent September, according to Republican aides.”

* Another step backwards: “President Trump is shelving a proposal from the Obama administration requiring large employers to report salary data based on sex and race, which would have enabled the federal government to crack down on pay disparities between men and women.”

* William Bradford has quite an online record: “President Donald Trump’s appointee to a Department of Energy post says inflammatory comments that appeared to have been made by him online were the result of ‘cyber attacks and Internet crimes’ committed against him over the past several years by ‘imposters in social media.’”

* The White House should look at this as a fresh opportunity to teach the president how to read a GDP report: “The United States economy kicked into higher gear last quarter, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday, revising its initial estimate for growth upward to 3 percent — the fastest pace in two years.”

* The Justice Department has “indicted more than a dozen members of the Turkish president’s security detail for a brawl between them and protesters during the leader’s last visit to the US that a grand jury says was rooted in prejudice against the victims based on their ethnicity and political ties.”

* Israel: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told an audience of Jewish settlers that he has no intention of dismantling Israeli settlements in the West Bank in exchange for peace with the Palestinians.”

* The latest reporting on the New America Foundation and Google looks unflattering for both. NAF published a response this afternoon.

* State Rep. Jason Spencer (R): “A Georgia Republican lawmaker warned a Democratic former colleague who criticized his support for Civil War monuments on Facebook that she won’t be ‘met with torches but something a lot more definitive’ if she continues to call for the removal of statues in south Georgia.”